Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Rati Pandit from Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am. Yes, sir. Thank you, Atiko. A very good evening to everyone. On behalf of Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities, we welcome you all to the Q3 FY24 earnings conference call of Muthoot Finance Limited. We are pleased to host the senior management of the company, represented by Mr. George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director, Mr. Alexander George, Whole-t ime Director, Mr. George M. Alexander, Whole-t ime Director, Mr. George M. George, Whole-t ime Director, Mr. George M. Jacob, Whole-t ime Director, Mr. Eapen Alexander, Executive Director, Mr. K.R. Bijimon, Executive Director, and Mr. Oommen K. Mammen, Chief Financial Officer. I now hand over the call to MD, sir, Mr. George Alexander Muthoot, for his opening remarks, after which we can have the floor open for Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Good evening, to all of you. This is George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director. Thank you for all participating in this conference call. We just concluded our board meeting, and most of the directors are here in this room itself. Performance highlights for the nine months. The nine months, which ended in December 31st, we have an increase in the consolidated loan AUM of 27% year-on-year, which now stands at INR 82,773 crore. As for the standalone loan, loan assets under management, it has grown by 23% and stands at INR 71,182 crore. The gold loan AUM has also increased 32% year-on-year, by increase by INR 12,397 crore. The consolidated profit after tax has also increased by 23% year-on-year and now stands at INR 3,285 crore for the nine-month period. The standalone profit after tax has also increased 16% year-on-year, and for the nine months stands at INR 2,993 crore. As far as the subsidiaries are concerned, Belstar has been increasing AUM at 65% year-on-year, and which now stands at INR 88,835 crore. The loan disbursement has also been for the year on year, it has gone up by 85% and it stands at INR 6,736 crore. The profit after tax has shown an increase of 382% year-on-year, which now stands at INR 235 crore for the nine-month period. Muthoot Home Finance has an increase in loan assets under management of 26% year-on-year, and now stands at INR 1,783 crore. The loan disbursement has also increased by INR 493 crore. There is an increase in the profit after tax, which now for INR 13 crores for the nine-month period. Muthoot Money has shown an increase in the loan assets under management 179% year-on-year, which now stands at INR 818 crore. The total revenue has also gone up to INR 82 crore, and the profit after tax is INR 3 crore, as against a loss of INR 3 crore last year. Asia Asset Finance, the Sri Lankan subsidiary, has shown an increase in profit after tax and it now stands at LKR 9.7 crores, and the branch network has also increased to 80%. We have opened 487 new branches by the group in the nine-month period. We have raised INR 480 crores through 23rd public issue of secured redeemable non-convertible debentures this quarter. We have also received, the company and the group, has received multiple industry recognitions, too, in this period. I think with that, the opening remarks, I would like to conclude here and open the house for questions and answers and clarifications. Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Rajiv Mehta from Yes Securities. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi, good evening. Congratulations on a good performance. So my first question is on gold loan AUMs. So there is a marginal uptick of 15 basis points on sequential basis. So is it completely driven by NPL reduction, or is there any positive impact of some change in customer segment mix or any product rate increases taken in the quarter? Being a short-term loan, it is quite usual for such fluctuations. You know, if you see- Not a substantial fluctuation, just a, as you said, it's only you said 15 basis points. ... Okay. And, could you share the quantum of auctions and quantum of settlements, done in the quarter? Options will be about INR 360 crore for the quarter. INR 381, INR 381 crore- INR 381 crore for the quarter. For the quarter. Any settlements that you would have, you know, We don't do any settlements. Okay. Okay. And just last thing, we see a slight dip in new customer addition and old customer reactivation on sequential basis. That number is slightly dipped in this quarter. I see that as a seasonal feature also, but is it also the impact of the reduced advertisement and publicity expenses in the quarter? No, no, I don't think it is because of that. Some of these things are seasonal also, but there has been an increase in customer addition. But, probably, as you said, as you said, Again, the number is not that significant, you know. September quarter, the number was 360,000. This quarter it is 334,000. So, you know, it's quite usual in a... And there's a huge churn in the portfolio. So we deal with about 5,500,000 customers, so it is quite usual for such fluctuations. Okay. Thank you so much for answering my questions, and best to you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mona Khetan from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi, sir, good evening. So firstly, you know, just referring to the ARC sale we had last quarter. So you had mentioned about some, you know, INR 200 crore-INR 300 crore of recoveries during Q3 itself, when the last call happened. So where does it reflect in the P&L? I see. So, you know, when we do an ARC sale, no, we invest in a Security Receipt, in the proportion of 85% and 15%, so the amount we invested in Security Receipt, it's coming as a part of investments. Okay. So, the recoveries that you had will now be reflected in, you know, in interest income as- No, in the investments. It comes as a reduction in the investments. And, you know, when it is completely invested, it comes as an income. What we... Right, uh. More than the investment will come as interest. Okay, it will come in the interest income, so some of it is reflected in the interest income itself. No, that's not what we said. So, when- What? when the investment, when the security receipt completely becomes zero, whatever we get over and above the security receipt, we have to- Right. We can treat it as an income. Till that time, we cannot treat this as an income. Okay. So we have not had any income from that, in this quarter, or? Correct. Yes, correct. You are right. You are right. Is there anything expected in the coming quarters or something? De-definitely. Definitely. We have around INR 280 crore outstanding. We hope to recover that in this quarter. If it is completely recovered, then probably we might see an income, otherwise, it might come in, in the first quarter of next year. Got it, got it. That's clear. Okay. Because limited amount is recovered, it could not be... Only the deduction has happened from investment book, and nothing, no benefits in the P&L? Yeah. Sure. Got that. Secondly, can you share the breakup of your loan book, based on ticket size, less than INR 1 lakh and above INR 3 lakh? There's no material change in the proportion. I think above INR 3 lakh continues to be 27%, between INR 1 lakh, INR 3 lakh continues to be 38%, and the rest, 35% is less than INR 1 lakh. Got that. Okay. And, just one more thing. So, if I have to understand the attrition levels at Muthoot, could you give some color as to what is it today, and what was it, say, a few years back, maybe three to four years back? Thank you. That's all from my side. Attrition, maybe, after the COVID, etc., or during the COVID, attrition was high. But prior to that, it was low. Now, I think we are almost getting back to the pre-COVID level. Okay, got that. So it's, it's back to the normalized levels pre-COVID? Yeah, almost normal. Almost. Got that, sir. Thank you so much. I'll come back in the queue. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhijit Tibrewal from Motilal Oswal. Please go ahead. Yeah. Thank you so much, sir. Congratulations on good results. So first question, on this, the ARC sale transaction that you've done. In the notes to your financial statements, you have said that the outstanding value of the SR receipts have declined from INR 595 crore last quarter to about INR 228 crore or INR 230 crore as on December. So if you could just explain, I mean, how is this working? I mean, essentially, when the ARC goes ahead and does the auctions or when you do the auctions, it will reflect as a decline in the SR receipts, is it? Yeah. So, the collections we get, you know, goes to reduce the SRs only when the SRs becomes zero, any amount collected after that becomes an income for us. But, you know, the collections are not actually coming through auctions. Primarily, it is coming through repayment of loans by customers. Yes, not through auctions. Got it. So, so this decline from INR 595 crore of SR in the last quarter to about INR 230 crore of SR, as on December, is predominantly coming from collections and or basically customers coming and repaying their loans? Yes, it is predominantly done to help the customers, to give them little more time to redeem their loans. Now, as you said, through other processes, customers came back, redeemed their gold, and they were saved from auction. That's the biggest advantage of the ARC transaction. Otherwise, we should have to auction those goods. So customers are separately happy, very much benefited also. Got it. And you mean- Yes. I would like to say, whenever this outstanding SR receipts become zero, at that point in time, whatever extra is collected will be classified as income. Because from what I recall, this ARC transaction last quarter was done at par, so you received the entire principal. Yes. Got it. One more question that I had was on the borrowing cost, this quarter around, given that you had also raised from public NCD. I think, I mean, the cost of borrowings have not gone up, but otherwise, this risk weight circular that came in, I mean, most of the other gold lenders seem to suggest that banks are reaching out and increasing the cost, the lending rates, at least on the incremental lending that they are doing. This quarter I see our bank term loans are actually declined sequentially, so maybe it's not impacted as much. Going forward, how are you looking at cost of borrowings, particularly, I mean, borrowings from banks? So, right now, the borrowing cost, as of, as of December quarter, it is around 8.55. I think we are more heading towards 9. So probably, you know, in the next six months, I think we should be, you know, we might see moving towards 9, unless there is some declines happening in the general interest rate scenario. Got it. So basically, bank borrowing costs can convert from 8.55 now towards 9%, which is the incremental cost of borrowing. Yeah, but it can happen and maybe only over the next 3-4 months. Got it. And so my last question was again on Belstar. I mean, very good growth, very strong growth, I would say, that we are seeing in Belstar today. So two things, I mean, looking at the environment today, I mean, are you not a little anxious about such strong growth, 65% kind of a YOY growth, not on a very small base? That is the first part of the question. And the other one is, I mean, last maybe four quarters, you were seeing a continuous improvement in asset quality. This time there's a minor deterioration of about 40 basis points sequentially. So any geographies where you have seen, this deterioration in asset quality? No, I think, see, our base was low. That is why you see the higher percentage, et cetera. Compared to the total balance sheet size or asset size of Muthoot Finance, the Belstar investment of Belstar loans are not significant for us. So not that significant. The 65% is because the base- Branches. Base, yeah, open branches. 14 branches there. As far as the NPA is concerned, we've not seen any particular geography where something is wrong. This is just part of 4.40, 0.4%, this way or that way, will definitely keep on happening. Got it, sir. This is useful. Got it, sir. This is useful. Thank you so much, sir. All the very best. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shubhranshu Mishra from Phillip Capital. Please go ahead. Good evening, sir. Thank you. Wait, sir. I request you to use your handset, sir. You're not audible, sir. I'm on my handset. Am I audible? Yeah, yeah. You're audible. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. The first question is around the loan book, the portion you gave out, what is less than INR 1 lakh, but within that, what is less than INR 50,000? That's the first question. Second is, what is the accrued interest? Third is, in the PPT, sir, I saw that you do use Paytm as our payment services for re-loan repayment. I know we are using other fintech companies also, but what is our dependence on Paytm? And do we plan to stop it or alter that relationship, sir? Thanks. Can you just... I forgot the first one. Can you just say the, remind the first one? What is the proportion of AUM less than INR 50,000, sir? 16%. Okay, sir. Okay, second one was Paytm. No, no. Yeah, yeah, Paytm. We also have some other Paytm also. I don't think it is impacting. No, no, no, we don't have any, any impact. I don't think we are, you know, depending on any technology definitely. No, no, we are not depending on Paytm. We don't have any impact on that, Paytm. What was the other question? Accrued interest, sir? INR 1,921 crore. INR 1,921 crore. INR 1,921 crore, sir. Yes. Okay, thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Raghav Garg from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead. ... Yeah, hi, thanks for the opportunity. Just two questions from my side. One is, so, we've seen that there has been a lot of chatter about stress increasing in small ticket personal loans. Are you witnessing any such trends where customers who may have taken such loans are now coming back because they aren't able to get those unsecured loans anymore as easily as before? And so, yeah, should I ask my other question or? Yeah. Yeah. Just because they're not getting a personal loan, we don't see any significant uptake of the gold loan. Is that what you meant? Yes, that's what I meant. So generally what we've seen is that- Probably, we have to wait some more time. If it is really going to dry up, like, during COVID, then there will be a big demand. During COVID, personal loans, et cetera, initially dried up fully, so we had a good demand for Gold Loan at that time. Probably, we'll have to wait for some more time. If it is really drying up, then people will come with gold. More people will come with gold. Okay. Understood. Second question is, cash and investments has been increasing, so I see that in Q1, at percentage of borrowing, that was, I think, 10%-12%, then 16% in Q2 has increased to about 18%. What is a comfortable level that you would like to keep? And, would you also look to utilize some of this balance for growth in the next quarter, or would you borrow more? No, I think a certain percentage. I have always been saying, we have to keep a certain percentage of cash and cash, et cetera, because we are definitely an NBFC. We have a large borrowing book. So our total borrowing is about around INR 60,000 crore, so we have to keep a good amount of cash. So probably, some of it, maybe INR 1,000 crore-INR 2,000 crore, maybe it can seem to be expensive, but then it is always safer or more prudent to keep little extra cash. We know it has a negative carry, but still, the carry may be 2%-3% carry is there, but still it gives more comfort to us. The final question, yes, we are, as you have seen, we are seeing growth in many sectors now and keeping little more cash with us and also increasing the borrowing, not depending only on the cash. That could be our policy also. So we will continue to borrow, and we also continue to have maybe a little, little, maybe little extra cash with us. Sir, my last question, in 4Q, how are you looking at the OpEx ratios? Where I'm coming from is that, typically this quarter is when you see the management remuneration also coming into the OpEx line item. So any levers we have to mitigate that, or how would you look at that...? Any other fourth quarter, sir. It will be the same as any other fourth quarter. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is on the line of Shweta Daptardar from Elara Capital. Please go ahead. Thank you, sir, for the opportunity, and congratulations on a good quarter. Just two questions. One is, so this, this question was asked initially: So is my observation correct that, this time you have seen a very strong gold AUM growth? Of course, it's come on a little lower base of last year, but this has come despite your LTV dropping from 70% to 65%. That is very commendable. But is it that reason why the, new or fresh customers have dipped or the fresh renewals have not come by? You have put too many, not put too many, assumptions in this. Anyway, growth has come, LTV is actually, LTV is going low because the price is, the increase in the gold price. So whenever the gold price increases, the LTV on the book definitely will come down from 75 to 70 to 68 to 60. That's the reason for the LTV growth. Yes, new customers are coming, and what was the next thing you asked? No. So, so even the fresh collateral has also dipped. So new loans by fresh collaterals- I think when the gold price goes up, people need to bring only lesser gold for the same amount of loans. I think tonnage remains the same, 194 tons, no? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, of course. Yes, correct, because when the gold price goes up, the new loans, they instead of bringing 50g, they bring only 48g. Correct, correct. That's it. This is turning so fast that the old one, 50 g fellow will go, and the 47 g fellow will come instead. I think you got the point. Right. So basically, the gold price has driven the gold growth largely, largely for this quarter. You don't need to summarize like that. I said the tonnage difference is what I explained. Right. Right. Also, the tonnage has been steady, right. So then, how does the outlook look like in terms of competitive dynamics, as on today? Because we have not seen much material improvement in ease as well. So the going look similar, in similar fashion, like, is it going to be as healthy as on today, going forward? Yeah, we see. We had given a guidance of 15% growth for the full year for the gold loan. I think we should be able to achieve that for the whole year. I think to that extent, that will be there. Competition is always there, as I have been always saying. After a while, some of these banks, et cetera, fatigue will set in, and probably the focused players like gold loan will come back. So we have been always keeping our go- our business focused on gold loan. We'll continue to do that... and probably we will see continued growth also in the same 15% fashion. Right. So, my second question is pertaining to Belstar. So with this kind of strong growth again on the EMI front, so at what IRRs are we operating, and do we see... So we have seen the top players calibrating interest rates on the MFI side, on the MFI business front. So how are we placed on the EMI front and any such calibration we are looking forward to? You see, the industry actually acts as a group, actually. When, as a whole, the industry has taken a decision to recalibrate the interest, and people have started doing it, we have also started doing it. What the other industries and leaders in the industry done, just like that, we will also be doing. I think they will also be doing. Yeah, the SRO for microfinance is very strong. Actually, they have a good control on the members, and they also instruct what to do. And I think 20%- Yes, the self-regulatory organization in the microfinance is quite effective and strong. Strong. I think everybody works in tandem. Yes. Right, sir. That's great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Pratik Tandel from Swan Capital. Please go ahead. Congratulations on a healthy growth in your gold AUM this quarter. So my question was, can you give some guidance on the growth coming in the next few quarters, let's say, by 2025, 2026, maybe? Also, I would like to understand on the competitive environment. So from the banks and other gold lending NBFCs, are we gaining market share from them, or we are benefiting from the sector getting slowly organized? Yeah, you said it right. So first of all, the growth. We had guided for a growth of 15% in gold loan for the full year. I think we should be able to reasonably achieve that by the end of the year. Going forward also, so, last several years, we have always been giving guidance of 15%. I think we will continue to do that in the coming years also. The first part of the question. Second was about... What was it? Second call. Yeah. So, are we gaining market share from banks and gold lending NBFCs, or we are getting benefited from the sector, getting slowly organized? Yeah, it's not sector organized. More and more customers are now growing. It is not that we are taking any customers from the bank, or bank is taking customers from us. See, the overall markets for gold loan is also increasing. Definitely, it's increasing because some of the banks are also, although at not the same pace, they are also growing their gold loan book. We are also growing the gold loan book. It only means that the market is improving. Right. Right. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vikram Subramanian from MWAM. Please go ahead. Hello. Hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question. I have a couple of questions. First, on margins, specifically yields. So, we've reported about close to 13-14 basis points of yield expansion quarter-over-quarter. But as I remember, last quarter, due to ARC sale and the GNPA increase, we had interest reversal, and we had cited that as one of the reasons to have impacted yields. So is this just a reversal of that, or how should we read this? Or is this the 17.5-17.75, is this the new normal of yields? No, I think, see, 17.5%, 17.8%, 18% is what we have been having yield for the last five quarters. So it's, it's still be around that only. Then 15 basis points here and there is just because of the short-term tenure of the book, of the loan. Very short-term tenure. So sometimes 15, 20 basis points came there. So last year it was 17.65%, now it is 17.79%. Previously, it was 18.08%. So some small change here and there, just because of the very short-term nature of the loans. Fine. Got it, sir. So, my next question is on growth, so specifically on the operational parameters. So if I notice, I mean, gold price QOQ had increased about 9%. Yeah, even on an average basis, it had increased about 4% between 2Q and 3Q. Our gold loan growth is still trailing at 2.5% QOQ, and this also seems to be largely value-driven, and which is what we've been having, value-driven loan growth for almost the entire year. Our customer addition is still trailing at 1% or less. Even if I look at average ticket size of gold loans on a per loan account basis, that is up 15% YOY. So most of our growth has come from this. I look at it the other way, LTV is now down to 65%. But you know, if you adjust for the gold price increase, the end of period increase, LTV has actually gone up to 71%-71.5%. So almost the entirety of our gold loan growth still comes from price movement. So how should we look at this going forward? Because we seem to be completely at the you know the vagaries of gold loan prices, what is moving us? No, I think you have done such a lot of statistics and figures, 5, 6, 7, 7 or 10 parameters of growth, this way, that way, et cetera. Anyway, our gold loan business is growing. Our customer, new customer additions is happening. The AUM has gone up. We have given a guidance of 18% for the year. I think we will catch that. Let us remain there. On so many statistics and parameters and deductions and inferences you have done, I don't know which is all correct and which is not correct. Anyway, we are looking at the growth. Our interest comes from the growth. Our interest and income comes from the AUM only, not because of disbursement, et cetera. If our AUM grows, our interest will be higher, our profit will be higher. I think we are almost trying to stick to that. Okay. Okay, sir. So and that's 15% growth, sir? Yeah, I think, last two questions I have answered like that only, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shreepal Doshi from Equirus. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Congrats on good, good quarter, and thank you for giving me the opportunity. So my first question was pertaining to the new customer acquisition run rate. So what is it that we have in mind or that we are targeting in order to add on a monthly basis in the new customer acquisition landscape? I think, yeah, we are doing lot of road, road activities. We call it BTL, okay? BTL. BTL activities. BTL activities we are doing here, everywhere we are doing, and that is actually growing our customers also, because the customer churn is definitely higher, because the loans are very short-lived, so it's like a treadmill. So new customers come, they take back their gold, we have to get new customers, and that's an ongoing process for us, ongoing process for us, because the tenure is very short. But then the advantage of a short tenure is that, our yield, our, returns or NPS, et cetera, will not be there. So we are always, in the market with activities, with advertisements also. We do advertisements also, for maybe branding, et cetera. And, local activities is there in all the 5,000 branches. So that is how we keep the new customer growth. So sir, just a follow-up question on that. Have we tried to relook at or revisit the key responsibility area of our employees so that, you know, this momentum on new customer acquisition can also be sort of improved, or the leakage that we have of the customer in terms of renewal or maturity of loans that can be curtailed? So have we looked at or revisited the KRAs of our employees? Yeah, I think, this is a very operationally challenging business. The staff, et cetera, needs to be at the branch to take custody of the gold, control of the gold, safety, security. They have to be in the branch. At other times, we expect them to go out and do business also, but not, we don't expect them to be always outside, because every day there are such a lot of walk-ins coming to the branch for new pledges, interest payments, release, et cetera. So staff has to be in the branch also. Security safety also is there. But notwithstanding that, we have a marketing team, and occasionally the branch people also accompany them for marketing activities. So KRA is mainly their growth in the business in the branch, and there are some of it also to do marketing, and we have telecalling, et cetera, at the branch level itself. Branch level itself, all our customers ask them for new business, ask them for interest, ask them for renewal, et cetera. All right. So just one last question on the Muthoot Money franchise. So if you look at the branch network has doubled in the last 12 months and also the AUM. Just wanted to get a sense with respect to what does the loan book mix looks like in this subsidiary of ours? Sir, the loan book today is about INR 800 crore. The branches have also been increased. The loan book is also increasing. The loan mix, like, versus like, Gold Loan and vehicle loan in that category, in that book, in that- A healthy mix of gold loan and vehicle loans. So normally a vehicle loan company, but we have also started gold loan because gold gives better income also, and shows a better quality of customers. So we do a mix of both. All right, sir. Thank you. And good luck, sir, for the next quarter. Thank you. Thank you. A reminder to all participants, to ask a question, please press star and one on your touchtone telephone. Our next question is from the line of Kushan Parikh from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Thanks for taking my question. I just had a couple of questions. One, just a data keeping question. Could you tell us what the auctions were for the September quarter, the auction amount? And, also, if I could just put my second question as well. Basically, how should we think about in loan spreads and margins going forward, given that we're saying that cost of funds could increase from 8.55% to 9% over the next one, two quarters, I mean, will we be increasing our yields to also sustain our margins? Yeah. The yield has been hovering around 18%. So 18% plus or minus 15 basis, 20 basis, is what we have been seeing in the last 5 quarters. So the yield will remain like that. Although, the CFO said that the cost of funds may go, that is for incremental cost of borrowing. But overall, probably, we may not expect it to reach near the 9%, just a little more only. It will nearer to, not up to 9%. So some of it, probably we will be able to make up with the better operation ex- operation cost reduction, et cetera. But, probably we may not be thinking of increasing our rates, et cetera, unless the cost of borrowing goes up substantially. We will be able to maintain our commitment in that. Got it, sir. And the auction for September quarter, the auction number? For December quarter, it is INR 381. September? December, INR 381. The September quarter, sir? Coming, coming, coming. INR 236 crore. INR 236 crore. INR 276 crore. INR 236 crore, INR 236 crore. INR 236 crore. Okay. Thank you, sir. That's, that's all from me. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jigar Jani from B&K Securities. Please go ahead. Yeah, hi, sir. Thank you for taking my question. Just one clarification. The incremental cost of borrowing, bank borrowing is 9%, right? That is what you mentioned, right? Can come up to 9%. Can come up to 9%. Okay. Okay. Currently, it is on a blended basis, what would be the incremental cost of borrowing? That's what, 8.55 now for December quarter. Okay. Okay, okay. So 8.55 is the blended as well as the, incremental, cost of it. Okay. And sir, can you just repeat the accrued interest number for year? INR 1,921 crore. INR 1,921 crore. INR 1,921 crore. Sir, just corresponding to the previous participant, you had earlier guided for a 9%-10% kind of spread range. Is that maintained or the guidance? Yeah, I think, you know, this quarter, it is 9.24%, right? 9.2%. Yeah. Yeah. We will be near within this range even after the rate increase, cost of borrowing increase that we mentioned. We're trying to maintain that. We're trying to maintain that. Okay. Okay, thank you so much for answering the question. Best of luck. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rajiv Mehta, from YES Securities. Please go ahead. Yeah, so just two questions on Belstar. Can you give some outlook on Belstar's credit cost? And if you can also share Stage Two number for Belstar as of December and as of September. Stage Two or Stage Three? Belstar Stage Three is 1.9%. No, Stage Two. Stage Two, it is 1%, 1.03%. Okay. And, what is the outlook on credit cost? Because we have seen a sharp jump in, you know, 1.99%, I mean, Stage Three numbers, and provisioning has also gone up. Do you expect it to stabilize in this quarter or normalize a bit? In fact, Stage Three has come down compared to last year. No, on QoQ basis. Not on Qo Q basis. Right. Okay. Yeah. I think it is stabilizing. It's stabilizing in January, so that's better. Okay. Okay. Got that. Cost of Funds or... Credit cost. Credit cost. Credit cost. Okay. So in Q4, the early trends are that it is stabilizing, right? Yeah, it's stabilizing. Got it. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vasu Jain, from Marcellus Investment Managers Private Limited. Please go ahead. Hello, can you hear me? Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes, yes, we can hear you. Yeah, sir, can you tell us something about the branch openings that we have done? We can see 30 branches have been opened in standalone business. And, can you share something on what is the RBI saying on further branch openings? So, yeah, for the last year, this year 2022-2023, we opened 150 branches. Thereafter, we approached RBI, they gave us permission to open another- 114. 114 branches. I think that's almost complete by Q4. This March, or maybe early April, we should be able to open that also. Further, we will again approach for... We have approached for another set of branches, and that is an ongoing process. 100, 150 branches a year, what we are doing now. So I think it will be an ongoing process. Okay. And we do not see any problem in obtaining the approval? No, no. No, we have to convince the RBI, that is what our job is to see that they are convinced about the company and its operations. And then, of course, if that is so, we don't see any issues there. Got it. Thanks. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ashish, from Infinity. Please go ahead. Thank you, sir. Congratulations for a good set of numbers. Sir, I had one question in relation to the insurance brokers entity. We've seen the operating expenses jump up significantly. Any specific reason, or is there a one-off? I think it should be a one-off. What would it be in nature of, sir? I don't remember what. Okay. Maybe we can get it offline from you, sir. ... Thank you. Our next question. Before we take the next question, a reminder to all participants, you may press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Piran Engineer from CLSA. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi, sir. Congrats on the good set of numbers. Just a couple of clarifications on previously asked questions. First, we are SR book of INR 230 crore. If we recover, let's say, INR 300 crore out of it, the extra 70 goes to the ARC or to us? The collections are divided. The investment in SR is in the proportion of 85 and 15, and the collections also are apportioned in the same basis. Collections over and above the SRs get allocated in the form of 85 and 15. Of course, there is a certain cap which is there for the ARC. Got it. Okay, that explains it. Secondly, do we, did we have any interest reversals in this quarter or any write backs? Last quarter, it was INR 100 crore reversal, if I remember correctly. So if you look at the numbers from September 30 to and compared with the December 31, I think, you know, the NPLs have declined, so, you know, then there is no need for an interest reversal. So that is why, you know, there is a provision reversals, because the NPL provisions have come down. Okay, so is it fair to say that the INR 100 crore reversal we had in September quarter, we did not have in December quarter? That is fair to say. So, no, if you go deeper into it, there is always a reversal because it's not the same set of NPLs which get declared- New set of customers. It could be, it could be a new set of customers is now shown as an NPA compared to September quarter. So the September quarter NPA would have got maybe closed or, you know, major portion would have got closed, then a new set of customers. So, at the loan level, there could be reversals. Okay. Okay. Definitely it's not a problem. Understood. Just lastly, on Belstar, we've seen this slight increase in NPLs. Is that because of the floods in Tamil Nadu, or how do we read this? Also, what are the key states for Belstar? Belstar is. Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu is about- Majority, 50% is in Tamil Nadu. 50% is in Tamil Nadu. The rest, South India, other South Indian, and, probably... Yeah, I think floods have got a small impact, but I think that's got corrected in the month of January. That was, we understand. Okay, so did I hear that bulk of the book is in South India and half of the book is in Tamil Nadu state alone? Yes. Yes. Yes, yes. Okay. Okay, that- Southern India. Okay, that answers it. Yeah. Thank you so much, and wish you all the best. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shubhranshu Mishra from Phillip Capital. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Just wanted a clarification on the branch opening for 2024 and 2025. Do we get any incentives to open up branches in left-wing extremist districts? That's the first. Second is, sir, as per my understanding, we come to assignments, but of gold loans because they are bullet loans. But if we take monthly interest, can we do payment of the gold loans, sir? Thanks. First question was about what? Branch opening in Special incentive. Incentive for branch opening in which places, sir? Left-wing extremist districts, sir. LWE. We have not thought about that thing, sir, no. Left-wing extremist. First of all, I don't know what is- Which are the states? Which are the states? Because some districts which fall into Telangana as well, sir, which could have large quantity. No, I don't think there's any incentives for us there. Anyways, no, before opening a branch, we do a risk assessment, et cetera. Second one was about monthly interest, not on six. I did not understand. Sir, you see, gold loans are on monthly interest. Can we assign, do assignment transactions for our gold loans? I think so. EMI and monthly interest, we may be able to. Yes. Okay. But that would be yield dilutive, right, sir, if we do monthly interest on gold loans? That will be? Yield dilutive. Yield dilutive. No. See, you are, you know, whether it's no gold loan as a product suits monthly payment is doubtful. So I'm not sure how far- We have, our loans are on bullet requirement, and there is no EMI and monthly commitment for the customer. It's all EMI, it's all, bullet loan and bullet payment. That is why customers come and take a gold loan. Anyway, it is a short-term product, no? So asking customers to pay on a monthly basis, you know, how far it is accepted, we are not sure. Sure, sir. Thank you. Those were my questions. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. So from the management, very happy that we were able to present a good set of numbers, and extremely happy that we had quite a few interesting questions and clarifications, and we hope that we have been able to clarify your questions. And from our side, we will ensure that the company does well and does well for all our stakeholders, whether it's the shareholders, the lenders, regulators, everybody. That is our priority. So thank you very much for participating, and God bless you. Thank you. Thank you. On behalf of Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.